Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
BRINGING THE CASTLEVANIA SERIES BACK FROM THE DEAD UNDER A NEW NAME.
$69.95 | PC, PS4, Switch, XB1 | playbloodstained.com
IF THE RISE of indie game developers has fuelled one genre in particular, it’s got to be the Metroidvania – in 2019, fans certainly haven’t been left wanting, with gobs of excellent genre examples on offer – including Owlboy, Dead Cells and the outstanding (and Australianmade) Hollow Knight, to name just a few.
The Kickstarter-funded, gothic horrorthemed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night enters a rather crowded market, then, with its main distinction being that its project lead is famed Japanese game dev Koji Igarashi, creator of some of the most beloved titles in the Castlevania series.
Bloodstained was essentially promised to be a modern version of Igarashi’s earlier hits, and it follows the familiar Metroidvania formula: there’s a large open world to slowly unlock (which you’ll be criss-crossing for the entire game’s length), alongside a variety of power-ups and plenty of demons to slay. And as you’d expect, the core gameplay works well, with effective platforming and combat, enough of a story to keep things interesting (albeit in the melodramatic Japanese-gothic style of Castlevania) and a surprising amount of freedom in terms of how you customise your character’s loadout. There are over 100 ‘spells’ to be acquired (and then levelled-up) by killing the game’s various enemy types, and a simple crafting system lets you turn dropped loot into a variety of weapons, potions and tasty meals, with the latter providing a permanent stat boost the first time you try a new one.
This is also one of the most approachable and gentle Metroidvanias of late, too – while we wouldn’t describe it as easy, it’s not as punishingly brutal as most of its indie kin have become, making this a good starting point.
Some occasionally questionable design decisions do mar the overall experience, mind – there’s one particular occasion in the game where it’s not made clear how to get hold of a required power-up, and you may need to turn to Google at a few points to figure out how to progress. The Nintendo Switch version of the game was also a bit of a mess at launch, with occasional performance slowdowns that honestly have no place in a AAA title in 2019. Fixes have been promised, but hadn’t yet appeared at the time of review.
Regardless, Bloodstained does deliver on its promise of reviving the feel of its Castlevania inspirations, making it an easy recommendation to anyone who’s a fan of the genre.